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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Japanese Manga 'Yaoi' - Lesson 1

Lesson 1

'Other words associated with yaoi.'

When you start reading yaoi and/or getting into this genre of literature you're going to notice an overwhelming number of words, abbreviations and slang that you won't understand. Some of these words are actual Japanese and/or Japanese terminology, while others have been created by the fans that read manga and the industry that creates the comics. Today I've added a list to this blog, that you may want to read over or refer to while enjoying your mangas. The original list is too long to add all at once so I've broken it down into sections. For sanity sake I'll call this first part of the list Section A.

A word of caution, though I've been into the Japanese animated culture for most of my life doesn't mean I'm an expert, but I do love it. Remember yaoi is only a small part of this truly unique style of cartooning. And not to come across as having tunnel vision I also collect OVAs, full length anime movies, doujinshis, manga and manga novels, figurines etc. Having said that, this glossary does encompass more than just yaoi. And yes, I'm sure there are many more words missing. I've done my best to find the most commonly used. This list below belongs to the many anime/manga websites I found them in.

Enjoy and Happy Yaoi hunting ^_^!!

Section A (A to D and not in alphabetical order!)

Anime: Japanese for animation or cartoons.

AMV: Stands for Anime Music Video. AMV's are videos made by fans that feature scenes from the chosen anime together with audio from another source.

4th Wall: Wall between reality and fiction.

Angst: Involving death, rape, etc.

AU: Alternate universe.

Baka: Japanese for stupid, idiot or fool.

BGM: Stands for background music. This refers to the background music of an anime TV series, video game or movie.

Bi-: A prefix denoting beauty. A bishoujo is a young and beautiful girl and a bishonen is an attractive and usually effeminate boy.

Beta: A person the author trusts to read their story and fix any errors before they distribute it.

BL: Boy's love, lighter version of yaoi, no sex.

BDSM: Bondage and sadism masochism.

Canon: In the original story, creator intended.

Cel: In early years of modern anime, each anime show and movie was mostly hand-drawn, colored, and put together using thousands of animation cels made by the original animators. In the early 2000s, all animation studios switched to digital animation and cels were no longer necessary. Nowadays anime cels function solely as collectors' items and can be sold for high prices, especially if they feature popular characters.

Chibi (CB): Japanese for small, little or young. There is also the chibi style drawing of an anime character, which usually depicts them as being baby-like with smaller and chubbier bodies, larger eyes and head, and shorter arms and legs. Chibi characters are usually made to be extremely cute and endearing, and it's not uncommon for even villainous characters to be drawn as such. CB is an acronym for Child Body, and is a prefix indicating a chibi style. Artists draw their characters like this from time to time as a sort of self-parody (fans love them as well).

CLAMP: An extremely famous and popular all-female manga creating team made up of Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi.

Cosplay: This is short for costume play. Cosplay is the act of dressing up as an anime character. Many fans tend to do this at big anime conventions such as Anime Expo.

Doujinshi: Japanese for fanzine. Doujinshi refers to unofficial manga produced by fans. These fan-made stories can use already existing anime and manga characters or original ones. They're usually distributed online, but in Japan, some of the better doujinshi are sold in stores.

Dub: Refers to editing out the original dialogue of a foreign TV show or movie and replacing it with dialogue of a different language. In the anime world, the dub refers to the English language version of an anime.

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ABOUT ME

Blak Rayne is a best selling author of gay romance. She loves to write and believes it's one of the greatest forms of self-expression. What better way to see inside the human soul? Blak resides in Canada, and yes, she is a woman, wife and mother. She’s been writing and drawing since elementary school, and she loves anything that involves the arts. As for family, her daughter is her toughest critic and greatest support!

I post a variety of content such as articles linked to my blog. I will also share images, jokes, or information; whatever inspires me. 99.99 percent of the content is intended for adult viewing. Enough said!